Monday, 8 June 2015

Mash Direct Vegetable Burgers – review

Although I do eat meat I'm
certainly not someone who demands meat at every meal. I really do
like vegetarian food and often when eating out and left to my own
choices I will opt for a vegetarian dish. I'm rather partial to
vegetable burgers and I often order one when visiting a certain
national pub chain. In fact I don't think I have ever tried their
beef or chicken burgers. My liking of vegetable burgers is based on
the fact that they must be made up of actual vegetables rather than
some strange concoction trying to imitate meat.

When buying vegetable
burgers in the supermarket most of them will be found in the frozen
section. One producer I have come across recently is Mash Direct. Based in Northern Ireland Mash Direct are a family
company using the vegetables and produce from their own farms. Not
only do they have a wide range of vegetable based dishes in their
product list but they are all gluten free. I have to admit I was
surprised when I saw the gluten free label on the packaging since
when you see a crispy crumb coating I automatically think
breadcrumbs. The crumb coating is made up of rice flour, gram flour,
maize starch, salt and dextrose.

Other potential nasty
allergens which can often be found in vegetable burgers are yeast,
mustard and nuts. These are all absent from these Mash Direct
burgers. The packaging does state they may contain egg and milk which
is why they are vegetarian but not vegan. In terms of vegetables they
are mix of potatoes, broccoli, carrot, cauliflower, cabbage, parsnip,
spring onion with the herbs of parsley, sage and thyme.

There are various cooking
methods which can be used for these vegetable burgers. Mash Direct
are obviously hopeful for a good summer through promoting them to be
good on a barbecue. Sadly the weather hasn't been good enough
recently for us to get the barbie out so we oven cooked them. As the
packaging states it does say these are vegetable burgers with cabbage
and once plated up you can certainly smell the tang of the cabbage. I
thought this would mean that it would overwhelm the taste but in fact
it didn't. I will say if you don't like green vegetables these are
probably not for you. Some vegetable burgers I have tried have their
vegetable taste masked by the inclusion of curry power or other
spices but these are purely vegetable based. The texture is quite
moist inside rather firm. We had them on a plate to eat with a knife
and fork and I did wonder if other cooking methods would make them
slightly drier or firmer.

If you're looking for
vegetarian alternative to meat burgers this summer certainly look out
for the Mash Direct range. They are available from a number of major
supermarkets plus independent local stockists.

We were sent the Mash
Direct Vegetable Burgers for review purposes. All words, opinions and
photographs are my own.

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